HONG KONG (SE): “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” read one of the placards held up by one of student protesters as they knelt on the ground at St. Francis’ Canossian College on September 2, on the first day of the new school year. The students were staging school boycott in an act of defiance, calling for the government to meet the protesters’ demands, including the ouster of Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor. Lam is an alumni of the college.

Amidst the ongoing chaos in the city over the amendment of the Extradition Ordinance, all primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong started school on September 2. The heads of Catholic schools expressed...

WASHINGTON (CNS): Bishop Joe Vasquez of Austin, Texas, the United States of America (US), chairperson of the US bishops’ Committee on Migration, said on August 23 that he sees “heartbreaking consequences for immigrant children” in a final rule issued by the Trump administration that allows the federal government to hold immigrant children in family detention indefinitely.

The new rule was jointly issued by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)and the Department Health and Human Services (HHS) and will end a long-standing legal agreement put in place in 1997, known as the Flores Settlement Agreement, to ensure the safety and care of children in immigration detention settings.